U-BOAT SEAMEN

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21549, 31 October 1944, Page 3

U-BOAT SEAMEN

DISAFFECTION SPREADS DESERTER’S~"NARRATIVE LONDON, Oct. 28. A striking comment off the dwindling German U-boat offensive has come from a German deserter who fled to Sweden. He made it clear to a British correspondent in Stockholm that, although there is widespread discontent among U-boat crews, it still has not reached the point which led to the Kiel mutiny in 1918.

Even the keenest U-boat commanders are disgruntled men, the deserter said. One of their chief reasons for discontent is the cutting of the period of training for crews from two years to six months.

Political disaffection is spreading. One crew, while under the waters of the Atlantic, found that only one of their number was a member of the Nazi Party. He held the rank of wireless operator, but was actually a Gestapo spy. The crew felt that they had had a bad deal from the Nazis, so the wireless operator was shunned. He was washed overboard one day and caught hold of the side of the U-boat, but the crew trod on his hands and he disappeared into the sea.

The commander of another U-boat, according to the deserter, talked too openly about Nazi stupidity and said Germany should surrender before it was too late. When the Gestapo heard of this the commander was sentenced to be shot by his own crew. They refused, but were forced to look on as the commander fell to the fire of a German Army squad.